The Scientist
by waitingformydoctorwallflower
Summary: "There are five of us now...Mum, Dad, Mickey and…the baby." "You're not…" … "No, Mum is; she's three months gone." You liar, Rose Tyler. One of those 'what-if' stories, this one being 'what-if-rose-was-pregnant'. Read and review please. Love you, my darlings.
1. Stop and Stare

Stop and Stare  
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere  
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared  
But I've become what I can't be, oh  
Stop and Stare  
You start to wonder why you're here not there  
And you'd give anything to get what's fair  
But fair ain't what you really need  
Oh, can you see what I see?

Chapter One – Stop and Stare

It was a normal morning in the year 2026. The birds were out and chirping, the blue sky was cloudless and the air was crisp. A wind began to pick up, blowing some leaves across the street in downtown London. People were hustling and bustling about, dashing to get a present for that forgotten cousin, or ingredient that missed your list. The shops were open only a few hours in the afternoon, and then they packed up, shut it down, and headed home to their families on this Christmas Eve.

Arianna walked out of the mansion she lived in with her grandparents and zipped up her jacket. It was a ten minute walk from her home to the home of her best friend Isabella. She hummed a little tune to herself as she walked to keep herself occupied.

Well, slightly occupied. Her brain was too big to be completely occupied by a simple tune.

Halfway to Isabella's she started to pat the rhythm of the song on her leg and silently sang the song, focusing on the beat on one hand and pretending to strum the rhythm on the other hand. The wind began to pick up and she shivered a bit and instead shoved her hands deep into her pockets.

"I've been gone for so long now, chasing everything that's new. And I've forgotten how I got here, but I've not forgotten you. We were just children but our eyes opened and you were all that I could see. You came close enough to hear my hearts beat but still not close enough for me…" Arianna murmured to herself, getting louder for the chorus. "Through the good times and the bad, you were the best I never had, the only chance I wish I had to take. But there was no writing on the wall, no warning signs to follow, I know now and I just can't forget…You're the best I never had. Na na na, mmm…"

*.*.*.*.*

"_There are five of us now...Mum, Dad, Mickey and…the baby."_

"_You're not…"_

…

"_No, Mum is; she's three months gone."_

Those words echoed in the Doctor's head inside the TARDIS as tears dripped down his cheeks.

A baby.

The baby.

No, certainly not. Not his baby at least. Just because he let himself finally give into the woman he resisted for so long doesn't mean that he was the one to knock up Rose. He didn't even knock anybody up. Pete did that to Jackie.

Wait…that didn't make any sense. They hadn't been there that long. Not three months anyway. He checked the time circuits on the control panel. No, it said it was Christmas Eve, 2006. So it had to be Christmas Eve in the parallel universe too. The war happened five weeks ago…

The TARDIS jumped to life suddenly and he heard the most beautiful voice singing his favorite melody from Gallifrey, but in English! The TARDIS whirred and the Doctor grabbed onto the rail so he didn't fall over. It was in English, _English_! He hadn't heard the song in so many years, who was singing it?

Apparently the TARDIS decided to take a little trip. The blue box shook with energy and spun like a top, throwing the Doctor every which way. The voice got stronger and louder and the TARDIS shook a bit more violently.

"What are you?" The Doctor shouted to the voice but it didn't respond. "Who are you?"

Suddenly, all went quiet. The TARDIS stopped shaking and the voice stopped. Before letting go of the rail, the Doctor glanced from one side of the control room to the other through his peripheral vision. No one was with him.

He was alone.

However. He heard giggling from outside the TARDIS and some more singing, but not as beautiful.

"Dreams. That's where I hafta go to see your beautiful face anymore. I stare at a picture of you and listen to the radio. Hope! Hope there's a conversation. We both admit we had it good. But until then its alienation I know that much is understood. And I realize…" Isabella burst out of her house and joined Arianna and handed her a headphone, laughing.

"If you ask me how I'm doing, I would say I'm doing just fine. I would lie and say that you're not on my mind. But I go out, and I sit down at a table set for two, and finally I'm forced to face the truth. No matter what I say I'm…not over you. Not over you…"Arianna joined in with her and the Doctor stuck his head out the TARDIS and saw the two girls walking away from the TARDIS and was glad they didn't notice the blue police box from the 1960s.

"Damn! Damn girl you do it well, and I thought you were innocent." This was the voice, the voice the Doctor heard inside the TARDIS. It wasn't the blonde girl, it was the brunette. "Took this heart and put it through hell, but still your magnificent. I, I'm a boomerang, doesn't matter how you throw me. I turn around and I'm back in the game, even better than the old me. But I'm not even close without you…" It was the exact same (completely redundant, scratch the same, the Doctor thought to himself). It was the exact voice he had heard in the TARDIS. What did that mean? Who was she?

"If you ask me how I'm doing, I would say I'm doing just fine. I would lie and say that you're not on my mind. But I go out, and I sit down at a table set for two, and finally I'm forced to face the truth. No matter what I say I'm...not over you…" Arianna continued to sing, completely oblivious to the man staring at them from the blue box.

At this point, Isabella joined her and the two finished the song together. "And if I had the chance to re-new…You know there isn't a thing I wouldn't do. I could get back, on the right track, but only if you'd be convinced, so until then.. If you ask me how I'm doing, I would say I'm doing just fine. I would lie and say that you're not on my mind. But I go out, and I sit down at a table set for two, and finally I'm forced to face the truth. No matter what I say I'm…not over you. Not over you…Not over you…Not over you…" The finished in a fit of giggles.

"Good mornin' Ari!" Isabella told her friend, using her nickname.

"Good mornin' Isa." Arianna returned the favor by using her nickname, and laughed. "Oh! Dandelion!" The brunette darted from next to her friend and yanked the weed out of the ground, closed her eyes and blew. Isabella rolled her eyes at her friend and continued to walk without her.

"Hey!" Arianna shouted and sprinted to her friend. "C'mon Isa, it's what I do. I've been doin' it since I was seven years old and Mum died. I always –"

"Wish for the same thing. Yes I know, Arianna." Isabella finished for her. "You're nineteen years old, don't you think it's time to move on?"

"You wouldn't understand Isabella. You have two perfect parents. I'm stuck with Nana and Granddad. My mum died when I was seven! I never knew my dad. I only have a name. Barely!" Arianna said, exasperated. "I've never seen a picture, I've never heard his voice, I don't even know what he looks like! I've only heard stories."

"Are you sure that he wasn't just like…a sperm donor?"

Arianna laughed at her friend's silliness. "No, no, I've heard too many stories, you've heard too many stories. (Isabella shrugged, knowing it was true). I know my mum loved the bloke and I suppose…he loved her too. Nana always told me that he adored her."

"You suppose? I've heard your Nana talk about him and her like they were Romeo and Juliet. Forbidden, but so much in love. Everyone against it, but everyone seein' how much they were in love." Isabella sighed, twirling a lock of her shiny blonde hair in her perfectly manicured left hand. "Why can't I have my Romeo?"

"Excuse me, where's _my_ Romeo?" Arianna countered.

"Oh please, you have your Romeo. He's just…"

"On the other side of the planet?"

"California!" She shouted indignantly. "But…I suppose he's kinda on the other side of the planet." She muttered under her breath.

The two girls walked in silence for a bit, the headphones sending music into Isabella's right ear and Arianna's left ear. The Doctor still trailed behind them, close enough to hear their conversation. His heart_s_ went out to her, knowing how bad it felt being completely alone, even feeling all alone hurts too.

His thoughts drifted back to Rose. His Rose. (_Woah_.) When did he become possessive? When he admitted everything to her? When he lost her to another universe? Speaking of alternate universes, what year was it? Obviously it was Earth, but where? London? Probably. Sounds right according to the two ahead of him. He looked up and saw the Zeplins. No, that's not possible. He closed the breach. He just did that, nothing would ever make him forget that, forget Rose. How was he in a different universe…again?

"In this motel, well past midnight…" Arianna started to sing and took out the headphone in her ear. "And I'm bluer than a bruise. You come drifting in through the half-light, in your funny yellow shoes. And I hope that's you standing at my doorway, and that's the scratching of your key. And I hope this song I'm singing someday finds you, my letter to Elise…

"Mmmm…Through the good times and the bad, you're the best I never had. The only chance I wish I had to take. There was no writing on the walls, no warning signs to follow. I know now, I just can't forget. You're the best I never had. Nana nanana, best I never had. Nana nanana mmm, best I never had nana nanana." Arianna sang softly.

"Every time you sing that, I swear, I get goose bumps. It's so beautiful." Isabella praised. "Where did you find that?"

"Sometimes it's good to read." Arianna smiled her tongue in teeth grin, the same one she got from her mother. "You never know whatcha gonna find."

"I'm not the type that lays in her bed and reads books about alien planets and stuff like that! That's you. Just be glad we haven't seen in alien since…" Isabella trailed off, biting her lip forgetting what happened that day.

"Twelve years ago. We haven't seen an alien in twelve years and my mother was right there, protecting me." Arianna sniffed and pulled a purple daisy out the bush on her left. She smelled it and smiled slightly, then put it in her hair, making it stay between her sunglasses and her skull. Arianna sniffed again and Isabella gave her a one armed hug.

"Hey now. You are probably the strongest person I have ever met. And I don't doubt for a moment that you won't find your father, trust me. I just don't want you to get hurt like your mother did. And I'm pretty sure that's why they haven't told you anythin'." Isabella tried to console her upset friend.

"I know!" Arianna cried, turning left suddenly and taking off down the street.

"Oh no… Arianna Rose Tyler! You know what happened the last time you went there." Isabella called after her but Arianna didn't stop, she kept running. "Oh I cannot believe you are making me run in these shoes." Isabella muttered and then ran after her. The Doctor sped up his pace to keep up with them slightly, his feet taking over while his brain froze. _Arianna Rose Tyler_. _Arianna. Rose. Tyler. _

No…

Oh God, he did knock up Rose Tyler.

His feet carried him inside the gated area the two girls went into and he didn't bother to read the sign. Something inside told him where he was.

Maybe it was the sudden chill in the air.

Maybe it was the smell of wet cement.

Maybe it was all the tombstones.

Nah, definitely not the tombstones.

The Doctor watched from the shadows as Arianna slumped to her knees in front of a grave and traced the letters in the cement and mouthed the words etched into it. He couldn't bear to see the tears dripping down her face. She must've removed her sunglasses when she went down and with a shaking hand, she placed the purple daisy into the soil. He watched her friend, Isabella, bend down and pull her up into a hug. They let go and arm-in-arm they left the graveyard. The Doctor made sure they were gone before stepping out of the shadows and up to the grave.

_RIP Rose Jacqueline Tyler_

_Born: November 18, 1986_

_Died: May 2, 2014_

_Protecting the Earth till the very end._

Now it was his turn to fall to the ground on his knees. It was his turn to trace the letters on the tombstone. It was his turn to have some tears running down his face as he did so. The flower Arianna placed was drooping a bit and he attempted to fix it, or at least, make it straighter. His attempts were futile and he just laid it right against the tombstone and he lost it. The Doctor, the most not human thing on the (parallel universe) Earth, was crying – no – he was sobbing with the loss of someone he loved so much and he couldn't do a thing about it. The Doctor pressed his forehead against the cool, slightly damp cement of his lover's tombstone, his tears watering the solitary flower at her grave.


	2. Round and Round

You don't have to hold your head up high  
Round and round  
I won't run away this time  
Till you show me what this life is for  
Round and round  
I'm not gonna let you change my mind  
Till you show me what this life is for

Chapter Two – Round and Round

Mickey Smith never heard anything more gut-wrenching than the sobs of a heartbroken Doctor. He felt like crying himself. The Doctor didn't hear Mickey's footsteps approach him.

"I want to be mad at you. I really do." Mickey said with a monotone voice.

"Then be mad at me, Mickey." The Doctor spat, not even looking at him. "Be angry with me, shout, scream, yell, whisper, kick, punch, God even kill me! Kill me! It won't change the fact that I didn't do the one thing I promised her. I promised her that I was going to protect her, I promised Jackie I was going to protect her and always bring her home. Now she's gone. GONE!" The Doctor shouted, turning to look at Mickey with a fire blazing in his eyes, but his face proving just how old he really is. His bottom lip trembled slightly.

Mickey looked away. "How did you get here? I thought you closed the breach. Twenty years ago."

"I just…I just did it. I thought I did. I just lost connection with Rose. I was at Bad Wolf Bay through a hologram. Twenty years ago? I was in the TARDIS and then I heard this…voice singin' a song that I haven't heard in such a long time. The next thing I knew, the TARDIS was on its way here." The Doctor stood, wiped the dirt off his pinstripe suit and tan overcoat and wiped the tears off his face. Then he looked Mickey up and down. "You look old Mickey-boy."

"So do you. Which is odd, but I guess death does that to you." He replied cautiously. The Doctor nodded somberly. "So…who was singing?" Mickey asked, but he already knew the answer.

"You already know, Mickey. You've known the entire time." The Doctor was in monotone now, running his hand through his hair. "Arianna Rose Tyler. Rose's daughter. My daughter. Our daughter and I never knew. She….I…" He sighed and looked at Mickey. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"You shouldn't be telling that to me." Mickey replied shortly.

"Please. Please, Mickey, I can't believe I'm begging, but please I need to see her. I need to meet her. I want to meet her. I want to know what she likes, what she doesn't like, what she's like, who she takes after, what she prizes and keeps close to her at all times. Please Mickey." The Doctor pleaded with him. "I got Rose trapped here and to me, that happened twenty minutes ago, not twenty years ago. And it hurts me so much to know that she loved me and she didn't know that I loved her!"

"You broke Rose's heart in two!" Mickey shouted at him. "But Arianna was the only bit she had left of you, and that was good enough for her. Arianna was a brilliant child, still is. She knows why we never told her too much about you, Mr. Time Lord." Mickey chuckled, but grew somber quickly. "I can't…allow you to see her because I don't want you to hurt her too."

The Doctor understood, but he didn't give up. Not about this. "For the first time in 800 or so years, I let myself love again, I let myself love Rose and once I finally let myself give into it, we…couldn't stop. It was a dam broke and we couldn't put it back together. All the emotions, the love, the anger, the loneliness, the hate, the energy. First we were just fooling around, snoggin' every once in a while, then it was any second we had alone. Flesh had to be against flesh every night. I don't need much sleep, so I'd watch her sleep. I'd always watch her sleep, because it was the only time she didn't look worried that somethin' was going to go wrong. She said she would stay with me forever. I didn't doubt her. I didn't know that forever had to be cut so short…" The Doctor prated on about the two of them, confessing everything to Mickey. "I didn't think that I could…I didn't think it would work! I mean, seven hundred (probably more) years without – " Mickey nodded quickly, understanding where he was going. "Well, if I had known…" The Doctor shook his head and looked away, shoving his hands in his pockets. "God, I would've done everythin' just to get back to her. Rose and the baby – Arianna. Beautiful name. I wouldn't 'ave run like I do with everything else."

"If she needed ice cream at three in the mornin' and you had to drive to every drug store just to find that _one_ flavor, would you have done it?" Mickey shot at him, because that's what he did for her.

"Yes."

"Helped her decorate a nursery?" Did that.

"Yes."

"Held her hand every time she screamed while havin' your baby?" Check. With Jackie.

"Yes."

"Get a job?" He did that before he knew she was pregnant, but the Doctor didn't need to know that.

"So domestic. But yes!" The Doctor shouted, fed up with the questions.

"Alright!" Mickey smiled slightly that he was capable to make him so rumpled.

"Alright what?"

"Alright. You can see her, but you have to meet her outside of the house. Jackie would murder you. Get her to trust you and then tell her. She trusts people she can sense will be important to her, or have been important, and you were a little important."

"Yeah, just a little."


	3. Fallen

**Thank you all to have favourited, followed and reviewed. You are my light. I love you all. **

Run for cover  
My sense of fear is running thin  
Undercover  
Just like a candle in the wind

Tell everybody, tell everybody  
Brothers, sisters, the ending is coming

Ohhhhh  
We are fallen, we are fallen  
Ohhhhh  
We are fallen, we are fallen  
Now we're just gonna ride it out

Chapter Three – Fallen

It wasn't until the 27th that the Doctor saw Arianna again. At least, the first time he saw her alone. She probably was sneaking out of the mansion, granted, but that didn't really surprise him; she probably got that from him and that thought caused him to grin widely. _His_ daughter, taking after _him_. He liked that thought.

Arianna shut the door quickly, shoved her headphones in her ears and pressed play on her phone. She scurried off out the gates and down the street without noticing the Doctor.

"Arianna! Oh great, she's run for it." The Doctor heard Jackie exclaim. "This is what happens when you bring 'im up, Mickey!"

"Well hey! At least he's here, in this universe and wants to talk to her!" Mickey defended himself (and the Doctor) and followed Jackie back inside.

The Doctor hurried after Arianna, keeping enough distance so she couldn't hear his footsteps following her. She probably had her music up too loud anyway to hear anything anyway. She reached up and wiped her face with the back of her hands and the wind whipped through her brown (with natural blonde highlights) hair, making it swing back and forth and she slowed her pace and sniffed. She walked right past the TARDIS without even looking at it, but abruptly stopped. She pivoted 180 degrees and slowly walked back to the TARDIS.

"_They traveled in this blue box, a police box from the 60s. I don't know how no one ever noticed it." Mickey drew said blue box on ten-year-old Arianna's paper. As much as she wanted to bite hiss hand off for drawing on _her_ sketch paper. _

"_They called it the TARDIS." Jackie added from the couch._

"_What did that stand for?" Young Arianna asked._

"_I think it was Time and Relative Dimension in Space." Mickey scratched at the stubble on his chin. "Yeah, that sounds 'bout right. And I've been on it. So has Nana."_

"_But it's a meter by meter box. All of you wouldn't 'ave been able to fit." Arianna protested, using her Time Lord brain to calculate the size._

_Jackie smiled at her granddaughter. "But that's the magic of it."_

"_What do you mean?" Arianna asked, looking up at her. Jackie smiled widely and winked at her. "Well aren't you gonna tell me?" She never did._

"They traveled in a blue box, a police box from the 60s…" Arianna repeated Mickey's words in a whisper. She looked around and didn't see anybody, not even the Doctor who was hiding behind a tree, watching her. He knew she wouldn't be able to get in, she didn't have a key. However, it amazed him that she saw it. Normal people didn't see it, but she wasn't normal. She was human and Time Lord, well, Time Lady. She placed a hand on the door and felt it humming, buzzing with energy. She pressed on the door, but it didn't budge. That's when she noticed the lock on the door and sighed. It probably was just a prop for a movie someone was filming. She knew it wouldn't work. Tears stung the back of her eyes as she turned and walked away. She wanted it to be him, her father, coming to save her and change everything.

"Through the good times and the bad, you were the best I never had." Arianna's voice cracked and she sang slowly, but she still sang. "The only thing I wish I had to take. But there was no writing on the wall, no warning signs to follow, I know now and I just can't forget. You're the best I never had."

The Doctor took his chance. After listening to his crying little girl – daughter – sing his favorite song, he began to walk up to her. The wind continued to blow strong and it was so strong that it blew off Arianna's blue barret right to his feet. He bent down to pick it up and Arianna raced after it, pulling one headphone out of her left ear.

He smiled slightly and held it out for her. "Here you go."

"Oh thank you so much. It was my mum's hat, so…little important to me." She smiled and placed it back on her head. The Doctor marveled at how much she looked like him, except the nose, that was Rose's.

"Oh, well I'm glad I found it then." The Doctor used his charm to get her to stay with him. "That song you were singing, it was very beautiful. Where did you hear that?"

"I read it in a book. That I probably shouldn't 'ave been readin' but I did anyway, looking for answers." Arianna shrugged and gestured for him to walk with her.

"Answers? Bout what?"

"It's a long story." Arianna sighed, looking over at him.

"I've got time." The Doctor mentally chuckled.

"Well, my Mum died when I was seven. It was the time of the alien invasion twelve years ago, two weeks after my birthday." Arianna cleared her throat, trying to get through this as far as she could without crying to a total stranger. "She tried to protect me from said aliens. They were like…robots but far more advanced. I heard my mum call them Cybermen. One cyber-guy-thing hit her with his laser but then he was killed by my Uncle Mickey before she was vaporized or whatever. She told me the name of my father before she died, but to me, it's not a name. It's a piece in this puzzle called my life." Arianna shouted and then sighed, wiping away a stray tear.

"I never met him, my dad. I never heard his voice, or seen a picture. I am…left to my imagination for him. They tell me stories about him and Mum all the time and how they traveled through time and space. Yeah, time and space!" She laughed. "They tell me he's a Time Lord or whatever, but he fell for a human and took her with him. Nana talks about them like they were Romeo and Juliet with forbidden love and all that. He knocked her up and left her here. Apparently, this is a parallel universe and Nana, Uncle Mickey and Mum were trapped here without him and he was all Mum wanted.

"Nana said that she cursed his name and begged for him at the same time while having me. I didn't doubt it for a minute." Arianna laughed and the Doctor joined her. They both had their hands shoved in their pockets.

"I was pretty upset after she died. When I started school again in September, I kinda got back to the old me, but it was difficult. I made it my mission to find every book on aliens alive. Ever since then, I've snuck in and out of Torchwood libraries and restricted backrooms. I read everythin' I could on Cybermen, Daleks, Time Lords, all the aliens that ever invaded Earth."

"Where did you keep all that information?" The Doctor asked her, obviously impressed.

"Oh, you know, it's all up here." Arianna grinned and tapped her temple. "I've got a little Time Lord DNA in me, thus having a giant brain full of all the possibilities in the world along with everything I've learned. Sometimes it drives me insane." She laughed again, lighter this time, then she grew serious and turned to him, stopping abruptly. "Why am I telling you all of this? You should call me crazy, speakin' of aliens and all that."

"I dunno, I think it's possible. And why are you telling me this?" The Doctor answered her question with a question.

"I dunno." She shrugged. "Uncle Mick says that I trust people who I think will become important to me, or have been important to me. Maybe it's the whole Time Lord-y thing I have goin' on." She tilted her head and squinted at him. "Maybe you're important. I trust you, without a doubt. I feel something…strong, like a bond." She shook her head. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't." The Doctor whispered.

"Well?" Arianna asked.

"I'm the Doctor. Just, the Doctor."

"_Mum? Mummy? Please, don't go!" Seven year old Arianna cried as her mum started paling._

"_Anna, sweet Anna. If you ever…ever want to meet him –"_

"_Him? My father?"_

"_His name…is…Doctor." Rose closed her eyes and exhaled and Arianna sobbed loudly, only to be picked up by Pete and taken out of harm's way, screaming for her mum the whole way._

"No…no that's not possible." Arianna whispered and violently shook her head.

"It's very possible Arianna. I am your father."

"No." She practically chanted the word over and over backing up. "No."

"You've been waiting and waiting to hear those words come out of a man's mouth and for the first time, you have. And it's me! It's always been me." The Doctor whispered and reached out to take off her sunglasses. She didn't move. His eyes were a replica of hers. Well, rather her eyes were a replica of his.

"No." Arianna whispered, breaking the eye contact. "I…" Arianna shook her head and ran, taking after her father.

"Arianna!" The Doctor called after her and attempted to catch her. She was running back to the Tyler mansion, the Doctor realized. "Arianna."

Just as the upset girl reached the door, it flew open to reveal Pete Tyler. He wrapped his arms around his granddaughter and stared as the Doctor slowly approached the house.

"What's goin' on?" Jackie called from inside, walking to her husband. "Oh." She whispered when Pete pointed to the Doctor.

"Look, Pete, I –"

"What are you doin' here? You closed the breach twenty years ago." Pete cut him off.

"It wasn't twenty years ago to me…Pete. I just closed it three days ago. I saw Arianna and I didn't…I didn't believe it." The Doctor looked at him with his big brown eyes that mirrored those of his own granddaughter's. Whenever Arianna wanted something, she would just look up at him with those eyes and he'd give in.

"Believe it, Doctor!" Jackie snapped. "Just because you're the father to Arianna doesn't mean damn a thing!"

"I just wanted to meet her. See what she was like, what she likes and doesn't like. I know that twenty years is a long time and I know that Rose…" He paused, swallowing hard. "Rose is gone. Arianna needs someone."

"She has us." Jackie stated firmly.

"I know, but…" The Doctor hit a dead end. He didn't know what to say, what to do. He wanted to be the one holding Arianna as she sobbed for her mum and possibly because he was there. He reached out a hand to smooth out her chocolate hair, but Jackie slapped it away.

"Inside. All of ya." Mickey said from behind them all. "Now." Everyone shuffled inside and sat on the couch in the living room. "Alright, now. Ari, come here." Mickey waved his towards him. She did as she was told and sat on the other side of him, seeing that the Doctor was on the other side. "Think Arianna. All the stories we've told you, bedtime stories, naptime stories, or just at the dinner table. The blue box, the Doctor, your mum, all the books you have read – not now, Jackie – and add the fact that you look so much like him. It fits, whether you like it or not."

Arianna glanced from Mickey to the Doctor and back. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. The Doctor hesitantly placed a hand on Arianna's forearm and she looked at him, startled as he placed the other on the side of her head, his fingertips against her temple. The two locked eyes and, even though he knew it was wrong, he pushed himself into her mind, trying to get a sense of what she was thinking. She felt him probing, searching for something and didn't know whether to run again or stay.

_I'm so sorry Arianna. I never wanted to hurt you or your mum, but shit happens._

She shook her head, shaking him out of her thoughts and ran upstairs, letting a sob escape her lips.


	4. Demons

**Thank you all. Have a beautiful Thanksgiving.**

I want to hide the truth  
I want to shelter you  
But with the beast inside  
There's nowhere we can hide  
No matter what we breed  
We still are made of greed  
This is my kingdom come  
This is my kingdom come

When you feel my heat  
Look into my eyes  
It's where my demons hide  
It's where my demons hide  
Don't get too close  
It's dark inside  
It's where my demons hide  
It's where my demons hide

Chapter Four – Demons

"Arianna!" Mickey called after her and stood, as did the Doctor.

"Please, Mickey." He whispered. They practically had a stare down.

"Let him go." The two men abruptly looked over at Jackie and Pete, because they quite honestly forgot they were still in the room. "You heard me, let 'im go!" Jackie waved her hand towards the stairs.

The Doctor took his chance and ran up them, three at a time. There was only one door that wasn't closed so he figured it was hers. The door was ajar and light spilled out of the room through the cracks. He knocked gently, pushing the door open a bit more to reveal his daughter sitting with her knees drawn to her chest, her back against the side of her bed, a picture in her hand. Arianna didn't acknowledge him. Instead she just continued to stare at the picture between her thumb and forefinger, tears running down her cheeks. He stepped inside and shut the door. Arianna herd it click and looked up, her eyes filled with pain and confusion and curiosity. He sat down next to her, leaning against the bed as well.

"I'm so sorry Arianna." The Doctor whispered to her.

"It's not your fault." Arianna whispered back. "You didn't know."

"I should've. Time Lords are supposed to recognize when a baby is conceived. We are supposed to know and take care of the fetus and the mother until…well, until they don't need it anymore. We're supposed to protect them from danger and I didn't do that. I let Rose slip through my fingers. She was just with me, four days ago for all of two minutes."

"She's dead. Been dead for twelve years. How was she with…oh." Realization dawned on her and her face showed it. "You traveled here through the TARDIS. She was with you four days ago? Then you came from…when? What year?"

"2007. Five weeks before I traveled here, the war between the Daleks and Cybermen broke out in London. Four days ago, I traveled here, through a tiny hole left in the tear by hologram. One minute I was sitting by the console and then…I heard you." The Doctor looked at her as he said that and he head tilted, showing her confusion. "You were singing. That song that you were singin', it originated in Gallifrey. How on Earth did you manage to translate it into English?"

"I saw it in a book one day, looking up stuff I shouldn't 'ave. It was in a different language, 'Gallifreyan' apparently, but I looked at it a little longer and it was on paper, in English. What does that have to do anythin'?"Arianna shifted on the ground, now resting the side of her head against the bed so she could face her father.

"The TARDIS was practically broadcasting your singin' and…I dunno. It just decided to land here." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Maybe it was tryin' to tell you somethin'."

"She. It's a she." The Doctor corrected.

Arianna just stared at him. "It's a…she?"

He nodded slightly, a smile tugging at his lips. Arianna began to laugh, and it sounded so much like Rose's, he had to join her. She clutched her stomach after a long while of laughing with the hand holding the picture and the Doctor, still chuckling, reached out to take it from her.

The picture was old. It was of Rose and Arianna, twelve years ago. Arianna was hugging her mum's arms as they posed for a picture, undoubtedly taken by Jackie. They were at a beach of some sort. The back of the picture had the date.

_June 24, 2014._

The room grew quiet as Arianna stopped laughing and saw the pain in the Doctor's eyes as he looked at the picture.

"That was taken two weeks before she died. Coincidentally, it was my birthday." Arianna whispered.

"Protecting you while I should've been doin' it." The Doctor muttered.

Arianna placed a hand on her father's arm, almost comfortingly. "Maybe you never knew because you immediately traveled here. You didn't sense me, probably because I'm only half Time Lord." She leaned her head on his shoulder, both of them gazing at the picture. She spoke suddenly. "I have many more pictures than just that."

She rose and opened one of her drawers in her dresser and pulled out some birthday cards, loose pictures and small photo albums. The Doctor rose with her, but sat down on the bed when she handed them to him. He flipped through the loose pictures first; most of them were from her baby years, until the first day of kindergarten. "Mum expected me to hang onto her legs and cry for her not to leave me, but I ran off two minutes after we got there." The two chuckled.

She started talking while he flipped through the photo albums. "What do you want to know about me?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Anything. Everything."

Arianna giggled and started to go through her closet. "Okay…I'm nineteen years old, my favorite colour is blue, but I despise the colour orange. I love readin' and that's where I learn everything. My favorite book_s_ are the Harry Potter books. I always wanted to go to Paris, since I'm fluent in French. I took three years of it in school. I enjoy certain television shows, but not those drama shows on the teenager channels. I think I watch more daytime shows with Nana than anything. I work at Torchwood part-time, they're pretty good to me. I would run around when I was little. Got into a few ugly messes, but I sorted them out. With Mum's help." She grinned at the memories.

"I've been told on many occasions that I'm far too smart for my own good." At this, the Doctor laughed. "I am very artistic, but I find flaws in everything I create. I love to bake though, and I know that I can create anything without screwin' it up. Ah there it is!" Arianna exclaimed, pulling a box off the top shelf. "Here." She handed it to her father, taking the lid off.

Inside was a baby book, a piece of her baby blanket, and a few other trinkets of Rose's.

"A keepsake box." Arianna spoke softly, not to disturb the undoubtedly millions of thoughts running through his head. "Mum wrote that baby book for me and read it to me before I was even born." The Doctor flipped through the handwritten book, smiling slightly. "It would be the only thing that would calm me down when I was little. Nana knitted me the blanket. As soon as I knew how to walk, I drug that thing everywhere I went. However, I ditched it when I started kindergarten. It was a baby thing, but I still kept it, mainly 'cause Nana would kill me if I didn't." The two laughed together.

"I wouldn't have let you throw it away, I know that." He told her. Arianna smiled.

"There are a few more trinkets in her of Mum's, but the one thing I always have with me is this." Arianna grabbed the chain around her neck and held up the silver ring dangling from it.

"I remember that." The Doctor took the ring gently, not tugging on it, and inspected it. There was writing on the inside of the band, but he couldn't quite make it out…

"_Amour dure toujours._" Arianna spoke so softly, the Doctor wouldn't even have heard hear if she was another inch away. He looked up at her, his brows drawn together. "It means 'love lasts forever'. She said she got it before you two had even…why are you looking at me like that?"

"You wear glasses." It was statement, not a question.

Arianna raised an eyebrow and nodded, her glasses slowly slipping down her nose and she pushed them back up. "Yeah, but just to read and stuff like that. Examining something or whatever."

The Doctor let go of the ring, pulled out his glasses and slid them on and grinned. "You got that from me. I wonder what else you got…"

"What do you mean?" Arianna asked him putting a hand out before she could be science experiment.

"I mean…Time Lords are born with two hearts, a bypass respiratory system and other huge and annoying things."

"Oh, well, if that's all you're talking about. Yeah, I mean, I have two hearts, a human heart and a Time Lord heart. The human heart allows me to age and have emotions and all that other lovely stuff. The Time Lord heart lets me see the past, the present, the future. I try hard to stay away from the future, but the past infuses with the future in my dreams sometimes and its…a nightmare." She shook her head, running her hands through her hair. "Mum always said I looked so much like you, especially when I had my nose buried in a book. Nana and Mickey continued calling me that, especially when they would come home as see me, barely visible by the books, notebooks and papers surrounding me." She laughed.

"Do you need both hearts to live?"

"Nah." Arianna shook her head, throwing her arms above her head to stretch. "I can live with one or the other. If my human heart failed me, I would be full Time Lord. If my Time Lord heart failed me, I would be completely human." She sighed. "I'll live as long as time allows."

The Doctor smiled a bit at the tiny pun his daughter just said and let his knuckles skim over her cheek and tuck her hair behind his ear. He questioned his sudden paternal actions, but quickly dismissed it. He was a father – again – and he was going to be a good one. For Arianna, he was never there, and now he was determined to be.

"Thank you." Arianna whispered.

The Doctor frowned, his brow creasing. "For what?"

"I don't know, it just seemed like the right thing to say." She shrugged and smiled a bit, but her eyes gave her away. They were sparkling with tears swimming in memories of years ago, bringing happiness and pain along with them. She let one tear fall before letting her father pull her into a hug. She laid her head in the crook his neck and let the tears fall, but they soon turned from tears of sadness, to tears of something entirely different.

Tears for safety and love.

"This is the safest hug I have had since Mum died, you know…"


End file.
